Lenora Degen, a yoga instructor, told her after-school class at Buena Vista Elementary School in Colorado Springs about a yoga bill hearing in Denver, where committee chairman Owen Hill did the “crow” position afterward. The students then did their own crow poses. (Lenora Degen, Sen. Laura Woods’ Facebook page)

A bill to exempt yoga-teacher training studios from state certification breezed through Senate Appropriations today and now is on its way to the full Senate on the consent calendar, meaning no opposition is expected.

I shared the story with my after-school class at Buena Vista Elementary School in Colorado Springs on Friday afternoon. We discussed the meaning of “Democracy” and how we have the right to let our elected officials know our points of view. Then I showed them the photo from the Denver Post” (of Sen Owen Hill doing the crow in the Senate Committee room).

They were impressed and excited to try the pose themselves. Here they are, posing for you all. It’s their way of saying THANK YOU!

Rep. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, who says on his web site when he was employed by the state Senate GOP policy office he “worked to advance Conservative values and shine a light on many of the liberal policies that have hurt job growth and infringed on our freedoms.”

Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, the former state director for America Votes, who says on her web site she was instrumental in passing a 2013 election law opposed by Republican lawmakers. Before that, she worked for NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado for several years.

Senate sponsors include Republicans Vicki Marble and Laura Woods, and Democrats Irene Aguilar and Lucia Guzman, again an unusual grouping.

Colorado Senate Republicans, who now have an 18-17 majority, celebrated during caucus leadership elections by donning No. 18 Peyton Manning jerseys. Democrats have been in power since 2005 but will be in the minority next year. (Senate GOP)

Colorado Senate Republicans, who will be in charge for the next two years, have announced their committee chairs and members for the next two years.

The biggest surprise for Democrats might be the Senate Education Committee, where some of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans are assigned. In other words, this is not a teachers union friendly crowd.

Sen. Owen Hill

Democratic Sen. Andy Kerr of Lakewood, the current education chair, said he looks forward to working with the new education chair, Republican Owen Hill of Colorado Springs.

“I’ve served with Hill on two different committees and found his intelligence and humor to be uplifting,” Kerr said. “Although we don’t agree on every issue we certainly enjoy working together.”

Likewise, Hill said.

“Andy and I talk and text regularly,” Hill said. “There are very few people in politics I enjoy working with more than Andy Kerr.”

It’s not often lawmakers dress-up in kilts to testify before legislative committees. But it’s also not often lawmakers call for the creation of a Scottish American license plate.

Sens. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, and Mike Johnston, D-Denver, wore the knee-length garment Tuesday afternoon when they sat before the Senate Finance committee to gather support for the special license plate.

The proposal allows a Coloradan to obtain a Scottish plate if they provide the Department of Motor Vehicles with a certificate confirming they’ve made an “appropriate donation to the St. Andrew Society of Colorado.” The Society is a nonprofit created in Denver in 1963.

“Being of Scottish descent, and my name being Scottish, I try to instill in students this sense of family identity and knowing your heritage — and I think this helps,” said Kerr, whose bill passed out the committee Tuesday on a party-line vote.

“I see a lot of purpose in some of these license plates to support certain things, certain groups and causes. … but with this, there’s an effort to showcase hyphenated Americanism,” said Grantham. “I don’t think our license plates should be separating us by nationality.”

In a previous session, lawmakers passed a measure that allowed for the creation of Italian American license plates. Those who obtain a special plate must pay a $25 fee.

(Note: Rep. Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction, the House sponsor, does not own a kilt.)

Mark Aspiri, at the GOP U.S. Senatorial debate at the Denver Post auditorium. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Republican Mark Aspiri today suspended his campaign for the U.S. Senate, saying the value of continuing to fight for the grassroots of the Republican Party “against the D.C. machine is attractive” but comes at a cost.

The Glenwood Springs businessman said the decision to drop out prior to the April 12 assembly came after talks and prayer with friends, family and supporters. The three remaining GOP candidates are U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, state Sen. Randy Baumgardner and Tom Janich.

Aspiri is now one of five candidates who have exited the GOP race after Gardner announced he was abandoning his congressional re-election bid to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. Gardner is the heavy favorite to win the primary.

Like his contemporaries, Aspiri stressed the need to unite the Republican Party in order to bring better leadership to the nation’s capital.

“There was no comparison,” Udall said. “I’ve spent my entire political career pushing for more inclusion, more rights for the gay community. He spent years trying to criminalize abortion, supporting personhood. It just doesn’t stand up to comparison.”

State Sen. Randy Baumgardner, who is running for the U.S. S Senate, said he has no intentions of getting out of the race although the three front-runners left after Congressman Cory Gardner entered the race. Baumgardner spoke to Jefferson County Republicans Saturday at their assembly. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

State Sen. Randy Baumgardner knows he’s an underdog in the U.S. Senate race, but he says he won’t drop out to clear the field for Congressman Cory Gardner.

“Being ordained is one thing but people are coming to me and begging me not to drop out. And I told ‘em, ‘I’m not dropping out.’ I believe once you get in something you need to finish it, however it turns out. That’s where I am,” he said Saturday, at the Jefferson County Republican assembly.

Baumgardner said he had been at the Denver GOP assembly earlier that day and met delegates who told him they had decided to follow him.

Secretary of State Scott Gessler is the winner of a straw poll for gubernatorial candidates conducted during Tuesday night’s GOP precinct caucuses, although results are incomplete and not every county asked for a show of hands.

Former Congressman Bob Beauprez only entered the race Monday, but he came in second behind Gessler in several counties, including Adams, Broomfield, Douglas and Larimer.

U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner and Secretary of State Gessler, at a Denver Rustlers event in 2011, are smiling after Tuesday’s GOP precinct caucuses.

“This is a tribute to Gessler. He worked it really hard and it shows,” said former Congressman Tom Tancredo, who was third or fourth in several counties but is trying to get on the ballot through the signature-petition process.

In the GOP U.S. Senate race, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, who jumped in only last week, crushed state Sen. Owen Hill in Larimer, Adams, Broomfield and Douglas counties. The two were nearly tied in Pueblo County, with Gardner at 44 percent and Hill at 42 percent. Hill could not be reached for comment.

Amy Stephens, a state representative and former House minority leader from Monument. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post_

The Denver Post’s debate between six of the seven candidates for U.S. Senate Tuesday night was as much about sizing up themselves as it was tearing down and each other, and especially the Democrat currently sitting in the seat. One of the debaters, Ken Buck, is back to take a second shot at the Senate, after losing a close race to Michael Bennet in 2010.

State Senator Owen Hill from Colorado Springs

Udall was called an “enabler” to President Obama and characterized as an incompetent public official who made a half-hearted effort to stop the National Security Agency’s spying program that amassed piles of phone and e-mail records of Americans in the search for terrorist plots. That was a hard case to make. A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Udall challenged the Obama White House on the issue and voted against his own party’s interest when the Democrats put up an NSA reform bill.

“We didn’t need an Edward Snowden to go to Russia,” said state Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs, referencing the leaker who brought the NSA kerfuffle to light then fled the country to avoid criminal charges. “We needed a Mark Udall to stand up for the American people … After Edward Snowden left, then all of the sudden we have the courageous Mark Udall.”

Six GOP U.S. candidates vying for the chance to unseat U.S. Sen. Mark Udall in November debated a variety of topics from immigration to the federal deficit as they ripped the Democratic incumbent.

Here’s coverage of Tuesday night’s debate featuring Mark Aspiri, Ken Buck, Owen Hill, Tom Janich, Amy Stephens and Floyd Trujillo. (Click on the name of the outlet to read the full story.)

THE DURANGO HERALD Republican U.S. Senate candidates took aim at incumbent Democrat Mark Udall on one of his signature issues — criticism of the country’s secret eavesdropping program. Udall has been one of the most outspoken senators in criticizing the National Security Agency’s collection of communications data from millions of Americans. However, Republicans at a debate Tuesday night said he didn’t go far enough after getting top-secret briefings about the program.

THE COLORADO INDEPENDENT
In case you misunderstood back in 2010 when Ken Buck ran for senator and lost the women’s vote to Michael Bennet by approximately 90 points, he wants you to know — now that he’s running for the Senate again — that he is actually very much pro-woman. Make that very much pro-women. All women. Even the one running against him. And, of course, his wife. And especially — for you young women — his daughter. In the six-candidate Denver Post Senate debate Tuesday night, Ken Buck said he was a much better candidate this time around, and, in this one showing, he was clearly the class of the field, although Amy Stephens, a woman, was clearly better than everyone else.

COLORADOPOLS Overall, this was a pretty clear win for Buck. Not only did he come off as the most polished and professional of the candidates, he also offered some surprisingly substantial and well-thought-out answers to tough questions. Buck also gave a little bit away about how he is feeling about his campaign at this point; his answers were much more targeted at a General Election audience than a Republican Primary audience.

THE DENVER POST
Amy Stephens made the case Tuesday that Ken Buck, a chief rival in Colorado’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, hurt the party in his failed 2010 Senate bid. Stephens said that the Weld County district attorney’s performance in a national television interview had significant ramifications.

COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTESix Republicans vying for a place on the ballot opposing U.S. Sen. Mark Udall in 2014 agreed on much, threw only a few punches at each other and collectively despised Udall’s record. The debate pitted the three front-runners against each other with sensitive questions about each candidate’s background.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESSRepublicans competing for their party’s nomination to challenge Sen. Mark Udall bashed the Democratic senator at a debate Tuesday night but offered few disagreements among themselves. All of the candidates called for repealing the Affordable Care Act, opposed same-sex marriage, argued against raising the minimum wage and don’t believe in human-caused global warming. They also agreed that Udall, a longtime Colorado congressman elected to the Senate in 2008, should go.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.